Is Canada Next? & THE FBI'S FAILURE

[FRIZ]

The Weekly Standard
06/12/2006, Volume 011, Issue 37

Is Canada Next?
by Arnold Beichman

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...2/292lutpg.asp

Time to look at the northern border.

THE CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE has just issued this warning: There is an increasing threat from what Canada's CIA calls "home-grown terrorists" living in communities across Canada. And presumably awaiting orders.

The warning came from Jack Hooper, CSIS deputy director of operations, in May 29 testimony before a Canadian Senate defense committee. He told the committee that, since 2001, some 20,000 immigrants from the Afghanistan/Pakistan region have entered Canada. And said Hooper in what passes for Canadian understatement: "We're in a position to vet one-tenth of those. That may be inadequate."

What that means for the United States is obvious. Our northern border must be guarded more closely than ever before in history. Indeed, it has been, for a century, an unarmed, unpoliced border.

Hooper said, according to CBC News, that young Canadians with immigrant backgrounds are: (1) becoming radicalized through the Internet and (2) seeking targets within Canada itself, not abroad.

"They are virtually indistinguishable from other youth," said Hooper. "They blend in very well to our society, they speak our language and they appear to be--to all intents and purposes--well assimilated. They look to Canada to execute their targeting."

Hooper pointed out that the men responsible for the London 2005 subway bombings were from immigrant families. He testified ominously: "I can tell you that all of the circumstances that led to the London transit bombings, to take one example, are resident here and now in Canada."

A Canadian resident, trained in Afghanistan and at one time living in Vancouver, British Columbia, played a key role in the August 1998 al Qaeda attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. He was the one who trained the embassy bombers.

Even more ominous was Hooper's admission that the CSIS could vet only about one-tenth of the immigrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, apart from bare details, which themselves may be spurious, Canada knows nothing--not even current addresses--of approximately 18,000 immigrants from that part of the world who have arrived just in the last five years. According to a report in the Toronto National Post, Hooper admitted that his agency was troubled about its inability to track these immigrants.

That Canada may be a terrorist target is a distinct possibility. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan on a mission that was recently extended until 2009. And as Hooper noted in his testimony, "Canada has been named on several occasions as one of six Western 'target countries' by al Qaeda leaders, most recently last summer."

But there is now a new and startling concern: Canadian-born fanatics, whose numbers are on the rise. Said Hooper about these nontraditional votaries of Islamist terrorism: "We have cases of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants converting to the most radical form of Islam. These are people who blend in with us and our neighbors." Hooper said the CSIS does a good job at containing threats it uncovers, but what about those threats it does not uncover?

"We stay up at night," he said, "worrying about the threats we don't know about, and we always used to work on a ratio of ten to one. For every one we knew, there were probably ten out there we didn't. I worry that the ratio has increased."

A new and conservative government rules Canada today. The U.S.-Canada border should be a top priority on the binational agenda when both sides meet again.
__________________________________________________ _______________

THE NEW YORK POST
June 5, 2006

THE FBI'S FAILURE
By PETER BROOKES

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/op...ists/64689.htm

THIS weekend's arrest of 17 homegrown al Qaeda wannabes just across the border in Canada is a nightmarish reminder of the horrors that have been - and could be - right here at home again if we don't fully get our counterterrorism act together soon.

By many accounts, despite a ballooning budget and staff, the FBI is still struggling to get its arms around its newly reinvigorated counterror (CT) mission - a critical capability that could prevent another 9/11.

John Gannon, a former CIA and Homeland Security official, told the Senate in late April: "We still do not have a domestic-intelligence service that can collect effectively against the terrorist threat to the homeland or provide authoritative analysis of that threat."

Many experts say that the competent collection and analysis of domestic CT intelligence could have "connected the dots" and prevented 9/11. Yet this still remains the weakest link in our domestic fight in the War on Terror.

Experts contend that if President Bush hadn't taken the fight to the terrorists in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, we'd have a real terrorism problem here - one they believe the FBI couldn't handle.

And what about the post-9/11 anthrax letters? The FBI still hasn't closed those cases. What's more important: Digging up Jimmy Hoffa's corpse on some Michigan farm, or preventing another deadly anthrax attack? Priorities, puh-leez!

Another obvious sign of failure: The G-men still haven't developed an accurate terrorist watch list. FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress it will be "some time" before that's done. That the bureau has had to scrap its $500 million Trilogy computer system hasn't helped, either.

So what's the problem?

First, there is the FBI's culture. The bureau has long considered itself a law-enforcement outfit. Getting an executive suite in the Hoover HQ building means cuffing and convicting crooks, not penetrating and analyzing shadowy Islamic terrorist networks.

Insiders are concerned that the long-standing FBI "cop" mentality of investigating a crime after it happens (i.e., reactive) isn't translating well into a CT state of mind, which must prevent a crime before it happens (i.e., predictive).

Personnel turnover has been a snag, too. Six - count 'em, six - senior CT managers have left the bureau since 9/11. Granted, it's a tough, thankless position, but the last one punched out after only eight months in the job. Something is amiss . . .

The flight of key personnel to the outside slows the bureau's much-needed CT transformation. Mueller says burnout and better pay are key factors in the "brain drain" to cushy security chief jobs at Fortune 500 companies.

In fairness, the G-men have made progress, too. The bureau established the National Security Branch from the separate counterterrorism, counterintelligence and intelligence divisions to improve info sharing.

And the FBI has added 2,000 new intelligence agents, doubling their ranks, dispersing them to Field Intelligence Groups in the FBI's 56 field offices - and established 120 Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Both upgrades helped the FBI contribute (along with the Homeland Security Department, the U.S. military, CIA and countless others) to preventing another homeland terrorist strike. No small achievement, by any measure.

And CT info is getting passed down to the local level, too, according to Mueller. According to first responders, information-sharing, while still far from perfect, is improving. Over 6,000 local/ state police have been given access to classified CT info.

On evidence, the FBI's is making only halting progress in balancing its "Book 'em, Dano" law-enforcement culture with its "Get Osama" counterterrorism mission. So what should be done?

First, Congress and Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte must exercise rigorous oversight, pressuring the FBI to fully embrace its CT mandate on par with battling crime. If the job isn't getting done, heads should roll.

Second, don't create another CT agency, like the British MI-5. Keep CT intel/law enforcement at FBI. The intel community is bloated enough already - and MI-5 wasn't able to prevent last year's London terror attacks, which killed more than 50 people.

Third, don't increase the Pentagon's or the CIA's domestic CT role. Beyond civil-liberty concerns, their CT assignments should be overseas, making sure foreign terrorists don't get to our shores. Let FBI (and DHS) do domestic CT.

The idea that the FBI can't do domestic CT is hogwash. It successfully caught spies, saboteurs and ran agents before and during World War II. The mere notion that it can't do the job now must have J. Edgar Hoover rolling over in his grave.

[Captain Ray]

Oh bull!!! I have been told right here on this very board by members that claim to know.. that there is no war on terrorism.. that there are no terrorists.. and that we should fear the Bush administration more than we should fear the specter of terrorism.

Either this story is just a bunch of right wing propaganda.. or the folks around here who tell me that there is nothing to worry about are wrong!?

I wonder which one it is???

Raymond

[one-eyed-fatman]

Our own government can bring us down much quicker then terrorist can.

[Captain Ray]

Originally Posted by one-eyed-fatman

Our own government can bring us down much quicker then terrorist can.

Your post presumes that our governmen has some intention to bring us down much quicker than the terrorists.. is that what you believe?

Raymond